All my life I’ve thought being excited was a good thing. And I’m excited a lot. I wake up in the morning excited. Wake up in the night excited. Sometimes I can’t sleep at all because I’m so excited.

Now I’m noticing that excited might just be the flip side of anxiety. (I know I’m not the first person to notice these feel similar.) Maybe what I call “excited” is just anxiety about the future that’s turned into a million ideas I’m going to try.

I searched for excited in the New Testament this week. Not there. The modern Greek word for excited is enthousiasmenos (as in “enthusiasm”). I like that one better:

• en = “in”
• theos = “God”
• meno = “abide”

Now when I start to get excited, I remind myself to rather be enthusiastic. Looks the same on the outside, but it comes out of abiding in God, not masking my anxiety.